Not entirely autumnal

Last Saturday was the hottest beginning of November ever, here in the Netherlands. Down in the south, temperatures went up to in the twenties! In November! Over here, it was only around 17°C, which is still a significant change from the 10-12°C we are used to. It was a gorgeous day, though. It was sunny and warm, there was virtually no wind and the sky was a bright, cloudless blue. It almost felt like the beginning of summer instead of an autumnal Saturday.

I took the opportunity to go out for a nice, long walk around town. I’ve been doing a lot of that, lately. Strap on my hiking boots, fire up my GPS app (what can I say, I like stats. My app tells me where I went, how long it took me, how far I went, and what my speed was!) and head out the door. You don’t need much for walking, just a good pair of shoes and a decent pair of legs. You don’t even need company. In fact, I much prefer to go out by myself: I can choose my own pace, I can listen to music or just to the sounds of wherever it is I’m walking, I can stop for pictures along the way without feeling like I’m holding up the group.

But I also like it, because it’s been taking me to places in my own town I’ve never been before. This Saturday, I walked across the golf course to the other side of town along a public footpath, all the way to the other side of town. It was a lovely route to walk! It wasn’t busy on the golf course, I think I saw 10 people in total, but there were an enormous amount of swans and ducks swimming in the ponds and waddling across the grounds (and getting in the way, I’m sure). There were pheasants, and I saw rabbits. And I hadn’t even left town!

You could tell that it was already November though, there was a thick carpet of brown and yellow and red and orange leaves covering the fields and the roads. But the sun was warm enough that I could take my jacket off, roll up my sleeves and soak up some much-needed rays. What a contrast with the walk I just took this afternoon, when it was only a measly 7°C, it was just windy enough that the soupy fog of the morning was just about starting to dissipate, and I kept pulling down my sleeves to stop my hands from getting too cold. I can appreciate the more ‘normal’ November weather, though. There’s something about a gloomy, frosty, grey, fogged-up morning that just fits the time of year.

So I’m happy if this was the last we saw of the summer of 2014. Let Autumn reign for a bit, now. She deserves it.